The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal’s “Best of the Web” at The Wall Street Journal written by the editor, James Taranto.
Obama Mentions Terror—Now That Would Be News
“Obama Doesn’t Mention Terror in Remarks on Bombings”—headline, New York Post website, Sept. 19
Bottom Story of the Day
“Gary Johnson Completely Botches Chelsea Explosion Response”—headline, New York Post, Sept. 19
Ministry of Information
“In a show of joint defiance, the major television networks collectively voted to pull a camera and erase video of Donald Trump giving a tour of his hotel, a protest of the campaign preventing any editorial presence on the tour,” Politico reports. The tour followed Trump’s press event Friday in which he acknowledged President Obama was born in the U.S.:
According to members of the traveling press pool, after it was made clear that only still photographers and video cameras would be allowed on the pool, the Washington bureau chiefs of the various television networks convened an emergency conference call and agreed to pull the network camera and erase the footage of the tour.
“The pool rules state any event that is pooled with cameras, there has to be a pool producer. Due to the fact we were not granted editorial access, as is customary, that decision was made and the footage was erased,” a member of the Trump traveling press told Politico.
Well. Trump should have followed custom and allowed a reporter on the tour. And we’re prepared to believe that the destroyed footage had little or no news value. But do the network execs realize how ridiculous this makes them look? It’s like destroying a stack of mediocre books by burning them.
For more “Best of the Web” from The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto click here.
